Sweep Revenge

That's Shank half-clever cliched headline after the Boston Celtics bounced the Brooklyn Nets out of the 2022 NBA playoffs:

The Celtics got their sweep revenge, and now it feels like this could be a long, magical spring

NEW YORK — Did anybody really think Kyrie Irving and the Nets actually wanted to come back to Boston?

The Celtics finished off Brooklyn’s latter day Bums Monday, beating the Nets, 116-112, to complete a four-game sweep of a team that was favored to win the NBA championship at the start of this season. It was sweet revenge for last spring’s series loss to Brooklyn when annoying Kyrie stomped on the Celtic logo at the Garden.

All of Boston and NBA America expected Dem Bums to roll over one last time against the surging Celts. It would be not fair to say Brooklyn quit in this one, but the dysfunctional Nets fell behind by as many as 15 and never led. They go down as the Greatest Dynasty That Never Was.

Clunker

Shank's first Celtics playoff column focuses on how bad Kevin Durant sucked in Game 2:

Kevin Durant has another clunker against Celtics, and that’s a big problem for the Nets

He has played 14 NBA seasons, which is longer than Larry Bird played. He was in the NBA when Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen were preaching Ubuntu and winning a championship. Kevin Durant has been around so long, he actually played for the Seattle SuperSonics.

But in Wednesday’s 114-107 loss to the Celtics, Durant — for the first time in his career — looked old.

“KD is in the Boston Celtics Correctional Facility,’’ tweeted Durant’s former Thunder teammate Kendrick Perkins. “The Celtics did the same damn thing they did in Game 1 and that’s get physical with KD and Punk’d him.’’

Great Celtics defense, or is it the beginning of the end here for Durant?

Careful What You Wish For

Shank's thinking about the Celtics' possible 1st round playoff opponent:

It’s easy to root for a Celtics playoff match with Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and the Nets

Celtics-Nets?

Kyrie Irving coming back to Boston for the first round of the NBA playoffs?

It’s too good to be true. And it’s not certain yet. But if the Nets win their play-in game Tuesday at home against Cleveland, get ready for sage-burning Kyrie to come back to the Garden to stomp on Lucky the Leprechaun this coming weekend.

The Celtics beat the declawed Memphis Grizzlies, 139-110, in their regular-season finale in Memphis on Sunday to secure the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed for the upcoming playoffs. Memphis, which had already secured the No. 2 seed in the West, had nothing to gain by winning the game and rested four starters to give the Celtics an easy win.

It will indeed be the Brooklyn Nets in the 1st round.

The Knucklehead Column

Here's Shank's Game 4 recap between the Celtics and Nets:

It just gets worse.

Kyrie Irving scored 39 against the Celtics in a 141-126, Game 4 drubbing Sunday night, then stomped on the Celtic midcourt logo before leaving. When Irving exited the floor with his teammates, a fan wearing a Kevin Garnett jersey fired a water bottle at Irving, narrowly missing his head. The fan was apprehended by Boston Police and led from the lower bowl in handcuffs.

“It’s unfortunate that sports has come to this crossroads, where you are seeing a lot of old ways come up,” said Irving. “It’s been that way in history, in terms of entertainment, performers in sports, for a long period of time. Underlying racism and just treating people like they’re in a human zoo. Throwing stuff at people, saying things. There’s a certain point where it just gets to be too much. I called it out. I wanted to keep it strictly basketball. But people just feel very entitled out here . . . we’re not at the theatre. We’re not throwing tomatoes and other random stuff at the people that are performing. It’s too much.”

Bury Them Early - It Saves Money

I'm not saying he's wrong about the Celtics losing the series, but you'd expect Shank to pull the trigger later rather than now:

Celtics season can’t end soon enough, and now Kyrie Irving has Boston on notice

It just keeps getting worse. The Celtics’ season needs to end. The C’s were embarrassed by the Nets, 130-108, in Game 2 Tuesday.

And then Kyrie Irving lit a match and dropped an R-bomb on Boston in his postgame Zoomer.

The ever-combustible Irving will be back in Boston Friday and inflamed his visit after Game 2 when he said, “Hopefully we can just keep it strictly basketball, no belligerence or subtle racism and people yelling [expletive] from the crowd. Even if it is, it’s part of the nature of the game.”

Irving doubled down on the Boston-as-racist theme, saying, “I’m not the only one that can attest to this. The whole world knows it.”

Such a pleasant series, right? Maybe Shank's onto something here with the early burial...